User interface

Dungeon features
Air	_ Altar
# Corridor	# Cloud
#. Drawbridge	+-| Door
. Doorway	{ Fountain
| Headstone	.  Floor
>< Ladder	. Ice
# Iron bars	} Lava
} Moat	# Sink
Solid rock	>< Staircase
\ Throne	^" Trap
# Tree	- | Wall
~ Vibrating square

NetHack's user interface is primarily ASCII. Graphical interfaces based on tiles are available for nearly all platforms, and some platforms have exotic interfaces such as Falcon's Eye, Vulture's Eye and glHack.

Even using only ASCII, the curses interface provides much of the convenience normally associated with windowing systems. It is available on the public server NAO.

A screenshot of the ASCII interface is below. Click on some parts to find out what they mean.

Font size and some other aspects of NetHack's user interface are actually configured in your terminal emulator, e.g. on Windows: PuTTY or the default terminal (aka command prompt).

                                                Pick up what?                   

                                      ----                                      
                                      |..|      Coins                           
   ----            ---   --------------..--     a - 21 gold pieces              
   |..|            |.|---|................|---- Weapons                         
   |..|            |.|...|................|.*.| b - a cursed mace               
   |..|   -----    |.|...-..--|--.........|.%.| Armor                           
   |..|  --.(.--   |.|...|..|...|..-----..|..)| c - a piece of cloth            
   |..|  |.....--- |.-----..|...|--|...|..--|-- d - a small shield              
   |..---|.......--|........|...|  |.(.-..%...) Scrolls                         
   |....|--........|........|---|))|.(.|)..).)- e - a scroll of create monster  
   |.|..----.........----...|(((||------..%...| Spellbooks                      
   |.|...............|..-...|(((|..........)..| f - a plain spellbook           
   |.|------.........|..|..)|...|-|-.....---.-- g - a thin spellbook            
   |<---|  |.........----...--|-|..|..-.-|....( h - a bronze spellbook          
   |...--  |---........|....(...|..|..|..|----. i - a velvet spellbook          
   ---... --  |........|..#.....----..|..|.(.-% (end)                           
     | ...|   ---......|-....{.%.[....|..|../|....-.0..+.||.||.........--.---   
    -- ...|     ---....--..|..%.#...[.--------....|00(@..||.||........-----     
    |   ..|       --.......|-........*............|---.------------...|         
    -- ----        --------------------------------  |..|         --.--         
     ---                                             ----          ---          
Valkyre the Woman-at-arms   St:25 Dx:18 Co:18 In:8 Wi:13 Ch:8  Neutral S:50886  

Dlvl:7  $:12922 HP:110(110) Pw:40(40) AC:-5 Xp:12/20905 T:11712 Burdened        

This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.

It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.4.3. Information on this page may be out of date.

Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-343}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.